Prologue: Atunra and Riggu
by LaMissile
Summary: A prologue to High Rhulain, most likely without spoilers. Fluff dwells here, for those of you interested in it. Atunra and Riggu together before the book.
1. Chapter 1

This being my very first fanfict, please don't hurt me. I'm new at this and I know it.

Did anyone else notice how close Atunra and Riggu were in High Rhulain? If you didn't, you're not me because I did and I needed a history for that. And there will be fluff. Doncha just love it? One little reminder, if you see any inconsistencies with the book, use your imagination to cover for it. Also, if you haven't read Rhulain yet, there might or might not be plot spoils.

Disclaimer: I really don't own much of anything. It all belongs to that fabulous man, Brian Jacques.

Otters, feral cats and pine martens lived on Green Isle. The cats formed into tribes, fighting for their warlord and leaving their otter slaves to suffer. Eventually, they overlooked their pine marten neighbours. So Bergon Felis and his tribe didn't know there were pine martens directly across the lake when he set up camp.

Atunra was bored. Her mother was setting up their tent and she was determinded to get in the way. " Yukri's teaching me to fish, Mother.", she said, twanging the tent strings. " Don't do that.",the older pine martenreplied as she swatted her paw away from the endangered strings. "Fish?",her daughterquestioned but knowing exactly what her mother meant. "Methinks ye ought practice your sling work. Go to the lake now and return for lunch, Atunra."

This is what Atunra had been waiting for. She collected her sling and dashed to the lakeshore. Grabbing an old, dried reed, she swished vicously at flies. It was spring and they were everywhere. The young creature was doing great until one of her swishes turned into a thwack. Whatever she thwacked started to hiss.

Atunra stopped in her tracks. She dropped her reed and felt for her sling. A gigantic swan burst out of the reeds. Atunra scrambled backwards in the mud. Reaching an open area, she finally loossed a slingstone at her attacker. The swan was hit in the chest, but without the force to seriuosly hurt.It hissed even more vicously and dived at her. She moved as fast as she could, but itknocked her sling out of her paw. Now Atunra was cornered against the lake. She looked for an escape route, but knew it was useless. The bigger, faster and stronger creature would kill her.

A grey streak flew across her vision. It clung to the back of the swan and started to bite it's neck. Atunra saw her defender was a young wildcat. He stubbornly held on even though the swan thrashed. Soon the spasms slowed and stopped. The cat unattached himself from the newly bloodied neck. Atunra was unused to thanking creatures. " Well, I suppose I'll hafta share the eggs with you.", she lied. "What eggs?", the dazed cat asked. " The swan eggs. Come on, eggs are good."

There, the first chapter, done. My other ones will probably be longer. Review if you like, I probably need advice. Please flame someone who can appreciate it more than me.


	2. Chapter 2

The second chapter- announced with lots of fanfare. If you like it, the chapter not the fanfare, review. Please. Advice is also welcome.

Disclaimer: I really don't own much of anything.

They made their way back to where Atunra had "found" the swan. Her lucky guess was right; a nest with four eggs was there, with no female swan in site. But Atunra wasn't thinking about swans. She was wondering about her new companion, while climbing eagerly inside the rim of the nest and sitting on the edge. Atunra knew alot about Green Isle, but she didn't know about him.

"So, who are you?", Atunra subtly asked, cracking an egg with her teeth. The wildcat followed her example and sat opposite her with his swan egg. "Riggu Felis. My father's Bergon Felis." He said that like it would explain everything. But Atunra had never heard of Bergon. After wiping her muzzle with the back of her muddy paw, she said " Is he one of those warlords?"

Riggu looked up from his meal, a drop splattering delicately off his mouth onto the bottom of the nest. " One? He's the best. I thought everybeast would've heard of our tribe, at least. Felis?"

"Of course I've heard of _tribe_ Felis. I just didn't know _warlord_ Bergon Felis." she lied quickly. Atunra really only knew a little about wildcats, but wasn't about to tell Riggu that. She continued eating, trying to hide her ignorance.

" What are you? You're not a wildcat and you'd be a strange lookin' otter." , Riggu decreed arrogantly.

Atunra barely restrained a grimace. It looked like Riggu didn't care whether or not he looked ignorant. Bad course of action, in her opinion, but she still replied, " I'm a pine marten. My name is Atunra."

" Is your father warlord of your tribe?", Riggu asked, noticing the slightly exasperated tone in her voice and not caring. He didn't have anything to fear from her physically and they both knew it. He'd proved that by killing the swan.

" No, he was killed. By otters.", she added. She kept finishing off her egg, little emotion showing on her face or in her voice.

" I don't like otters. They like to attack at night and play hide-and-seek with the catguards. Father gets very annoyed when they don't kill or capture all of the cowards.", Riggu replied, supporting his new friend. The thought suprised him. Wildcats' only friends were their weapons, a familiar quote sounded through him, often repeated by his instructors. He shook the words out of his mind briskly- those cats didn't have to know about her.

" That's what those otters are now, slaves. Except for the dead.", a satisfied Atunra smiled at him, showing all her teeth.

They ate the rest of the eggs, Atunra conviently forgetting about her mother'scommand to return to the camp for lunch. Riggu was in no hurry. He liked this odd creature and glad he'd beaten the swan in front of her. Riggu told him where his camp was. Atunra told him her's. They decided to meet at the nest area again tomorrow.

When Riggu got back to his tent in the early evening, he was worried over by his servant, Dornly, an old otter. If the warlord's son went missing, Dornly would be questioned, and not peacefully. He had a family to support and they wouldn't survive without him. He tried informing the young cat humbly that Bergon wouldn't be pleased to find Riggu missing ashe backed out of the tent for the night. If it wasn't for his family, Dornly would have fed the brat to the Slothunog himself.

Riggu barely noticed Dornly, he was so used to him.The wildcat waved him away without telling him where he'd been during the day. Dornly wouldn't tell that Riggu had left camp for midday. The slave might be "replaced" because he hadn't said earlier. It never ocurred to him how important this might be later.

When Atunra returned to her camp, her mother boxed her ears soundly. The older pine marten did not want to find her daughter dead. Atunra was the youngest in the tribe, every othermember was her elder by at least ten seasons. So she would one day be the only pine marten on Green Isle and the longer she lasted, the better. Dying that young was not in the tribe's plan for her. Not that Atunra knew all this. She just wanted to spite her mother after her beating. And the best way was not to tell her where she'd been. So Riggu stayed Atunra's secret.

And there you have chap 2. Now review and things will only get better. I promise. I'm going to stop writing this little A/N now, because inspirational music might start playing in the background if I continue. Review._ The sun will come out...tomorrow. _If you review I'll stop singing. Deal?


	3. Chapter 3

This isn't dead yet! Sorry for the ginormous break. I have alot of spare time now, so I'll try this again.

Disclaimer: I really don't own much of anything. This here all belongs to Brian Jacques.

* * *

Spring turned into summer and with the weather, Bergon Felis' battles became hotter and more frequent. Every single smaller tribe was eaten alive by either Felis or the Zaminols, a tribe whose warlords claimed descendance from the first cat. Examples were made of the few tribes who attempted to escape their fate. There was no neutral ground between territories anymore. 

On one particularily sticky day, a Felis scout was out looking for a late breakfast. The cat wandered away from camp hoping to find a pidgeon, or anything that his fellow catgaurds couldn't have totally driven into extinction by over hunting, foraging, etc. They must have succeeded, so he decided to turn back and beg off a luckier hunter. Then, off to his left, he heard a voice. The scout carefully peered through the underbrush and saw a very Zaminol uniform. They would not be this close to camp if they weren't attacking soon. And, if he played this right, he could possibly get a promotion from this. Swiftly, he left to warn his warlord.

Soon the Felis tents were coming down, ready to be packed away on the otter slaves' backs and hauled off to a better tactical position. Riggu, who was just coming back from his first lesson of the day in the woods, heard the commotion. Confused, he grabbed the nearest beast he could find, a catgaurd, by the scruff and snarled, " What in Hellgates is going on?!"

Cowed and terrified, he replied, "Lord, the Zaminols are coming head on- scores of them! We have to retreat!"

'Retreat!' reverberated through Riggu's mind as he released the catgaurd and went to question his father. Dazed, he paused to gather himself at the warlord's tent flap. Eavesdropping uncosciously, he heard the commands of Bergon to his captains, "Those cursed Zaminols will probably come through the woods in the west. Pincering around would be their plan. We've a few hours at best to escape up North..."

Riggu heard nothing after that. "Retreat," he spat again, padding away from the tent, kicking grass clods, otters and catgaurds alike on his way. No one dared interrupt his hateful reverie. Mocking his fathers' voice, he repeated, "Pincering around the lake." Riggu stopped in his tracks, almost causing an otter with her paws full to walk into his back.He growled at the slave out of habit. 'If the Zaminols in their blood frenzy run straight into Atunra and her tribe...', he couldn't finish the thought. Riggu turned and ran blindly to towards their meeting spot. He trusted his instincts enough to lead him to where he needed to be.

His mind and his instincts were two very different things, however. His instincts told him he was on the right path, and path there was, now that Atunra and Riggu had met so often in the same spot. The thoughts fom his mind, normally not nearly as traitorous to him, whispered of his failure. 'She won't be there. She lies on her back by her own tent, a Zaminol arrow in her throat. She won't listen. You are too late.' Savagely, he clamped down on his undisiplined mind. 'My coward father said hours, but not many.' He sprinted onward, faster.

Finally, he found her. Atunra was sitting in the shade of a stumpy-looking tree, playing idly with a gray feather. Riggu stumbled in, feeling shamed at his lack of grace in front of her. Still, he shouted his message, between his desperate gasps for oxygen, "Atunra! Get up... Zaminols... attacking."

The pine marten leaped to her paws and interjected, "Slow down, you must have sprinted." Riggu nodded, and she helped him drink from the lake's water. "Felis... we're retreating North, somewhere. Zaminols are coming around the lake, you'll be overrun!"

Atunra tried to keep her pacic from showing, but inwardly she planned the thousand ways this scenario could end. She wasn't pleased with most of them. But she grasped his paw and said as calmly as she could, "I can make them move across the river, I know I can. Or maybe mother will..." For something she barely recognized as her own idea, it sounded a decent plan.

Riggu held up his free paw to her mouth, trying to stop her flow of ideas from being lost to her. They never worked as well if she said them aloud beforehand. Better to trust to her planning skills and luck. "Atunra! Atunra, go! Don't waste your breathe!"

She nodded and obeyed, rosing then turning to leave. To Riggu's momentary confusion, she paused. Meeting his eyes, she murmured, "Thank you." and closed the distance between them with a kiss. She lingered there for a second or two longer than she expected.

'I would never waste my breathe.' she thought as they parted ways in the depths of the forest to return to their vulnerable tribes.


End file.
